{blackbabes} On the Verge: Natalie La Rose is 'Somebody'

On the Verge, USA TODAY's spotlight on breakthrough artists, this week looks at R&B singer Natalie La Rose:

Whitney 2.0: With her toothy grin, curly mane and lithe figure, Natalie La Rose may call to mind a young Whitney Houston — but the resemblance isn't merely physical. La Rose gives Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) a sexy, modern update on her breakout single Somebody, which samples the 1987 smash. Since she released the throwback dance track with Jeremih in January, Somebody has shot up to No. 24 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, selling 240,000 downloads to date with more than 12 million Spotify streams.

Determination: La Rose grew up idolizing Houston and Mariah Carey in her hometown of Amsterdam, where she studied singing, dancing and acting at an arts academy throughout her childhood. Five years ago, she moved to Los Angeles to focus on her music career, but struggled to get her foot in the door. "There were days I told my parents, 'I don't know what to do, I don't know how to move. I have no money, so I can't even get into the car and buy gas,' " La Rosesays. "My parents would be like, 'You know, Nat, it's OK if you come home to Amsterdam,' and I was like, 'Nope, I won't quit. I'm going to make this work.' "

Flo Rida protégé: One night in 2011, she took matters into her own hands when she approached rapper Flo Rida at an ESPY Awards after-party and told him they should work together. Having danced in J. Lewis' Dancin' For Me video featuring Flo, but never actually met him (they shot their parts in different cities), "I had a good opening line. I was like, 'Flo, you don't know me, but we did a music video together,' " La Rose says. "He was like, 'Is that so?' " After going to the studio to hear her sing and watch her dance videos, Flo recruited La Rose weeks later as a vocalist for his international tour. She was signed to his IMG label in 2013, and landed a deal with Republic Records last year.

Wanna sample somebody: La Rose has always tried to inject old-school flavor into her music, but hadn't initially intended to retool Houston's classic. In fact, Somebody originally used a different beat, but they changed course when inspiration hit Flo in the studio. "We had the whole song except for the hook," La Rose says. "Hours later, Flo all of a sudden was like, 'I wanna rock with somebody!' And we were like, 'Yes! That's the moment we've been waiting for, it all makes sense.' " After getting approval to use the sample, Jeremih went into the studio to sing the hook, and later shot the '80s-inspired video with La Rose.

Worst job ever: As Somebody shapes up to be one of 2015's first big hits, La Rose is putting the finishing touches on her debut EP, which is due out this year. It's a long way from the Dutch singer's one-time job as a telemarketer, when she was just a teenager back in Holland. "It was for a credit card, which you can imagine is super hard," La Rose says. "I wasn't very good at it. I got cussed out a lot of the time, and finally, I was like, 'OK. That's enough.' "

http://youtu.be/8zqdo_Umd5c